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from-the-president

In the Christian liturgical calendar, Jan. 27 was the third Sunday after Epiphany. In the United Church of Christ, it was also designated as Health and Human Services Sunday. The service that provides bulletin covers for UCC congregations across the country contained a brief reflection on the Gospel lectionary, Luke 4:14-21, and a blessing for CHHSM ministries composed by UCC staff writer Al Jones.

It is Dec. 20 as I write this, and tomorrow the world will end or 12 days hence we will welcome a new year. In the former case, writing this column is the act of a fool. In the latter, it is an act of faith.

Advent, the season of expectation and hope, is a time when God’s announcement: Be not afraid, for behold I bring you news of great joy… gives us courage to turn away from falsehood and fear and embrace truth and love.

In the modern era, our CHHSM ministries are challenged by an identity dilemma born from our nation’s ideological quagmire concerning how to structure and pay for the delivery of health and human services.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of CHHSM Vice President Bill Johnson’s ordination to the Christian ministry by the United Church of Christ. Bill was the first openly homosexual person to be ordained by a Christian denomination. Recently I was honored to participate in a celebration of the anniversary at Bill’s home congregation, Liberation UCC in Cleveland. I want to share some excerpts from my remarks at this event with the CHHSM community.

The theme of CHHSM’s 75th anniversary celebration is “CHHSM at 75: The Promise of Our Passion-Driven Movement." Our CHHSM forebears were German Evangelical pietists. For these practitioners of Diakonic Ministry, piety connoted a life committed to discerning the work of God as manifest in the signs of new creation (promise) before our eyes in the here and now, passionately participating in that work and hoping actively for the new earth where righteousness dwells.